Chicago Artist Franklin McMahon Featured in CTU Art Gallery

Chicago Artist Franklin McMahon Featured
in CTU Art Gallery--Drawings of the Second Vatican Council on Display

CHICAGO, [September 12, 2012] In a rare opportunity to view more than 40 works of famed artist-reporter Franklin McMahon, the Mary-Frances and Bill Veeck Art Gallery at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Hyde Park will host a special exhibit of McMahon’s on-site paintings and drawings, including dozens that depict events and scenes from the Second Vatican Council, as well as several from the civil rights movement.

The opening is September 30, 2012 at 5 p.m. and the show runs through January 7, 2013. The gallery is located in CTU’s Academic and Conference Center, 5416 South Cornell Avenue. Admission is free and on-site parking is available. The exhibit is one of several events CTU will host to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, the Council convened by Pope John XXIII in October of 1962 which ushered in transformative changes in the Roman Catholic Church. McMahon’s works feature the Vatican in Rome and Council Activation – Ministries and Meetings.

In a career that spanned more than five decades, Franklin McMahon (1921-2012) covered major political, cultural and religious events worldwide. He chronicled all Vatican II proceedings from 1962 to 1965, and the collection was made into a book, “This Church, These Times: The Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II,” as well as an award-winning documentary, “The World of Vatican II: An Artist’s Report.” He received three Emmys and the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

Over his career, his work was published in newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times, as well as numerous national magazines. McMahon covered every Democratic and Republican national convention from 1960 to 2008. His work on the 1955 trial of Emmett Till’s suspected killers was featured in Life magazine, providing a powerful visual expression that supported the growing civil rights movement. Franklin McMahon lived for decades in Lake Forest, Illinois, and spent his last five years in Lincolnshire. He died in March 2012.
About CTU: CTU’s mission is to prepare effective leaders for the Church, ready to witness to Christ’s good news of justice, love, and peace. Founded in 1968—in great part as a response to the expansive vision of Vatican II—CTU has grown into the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in the United States. Its nearly 3,500 lay and religious graduates serve in more than 45 countries worldwide.